What Ate my Blue Leg Hermits?

[TnFishwater98]

(Now simultaneously on the other side of the tank, this creature appears to be grabbing the blue legged snail’s astra snail from both sides.)
That seems pretty intense. How can it do it simultaneously on the other side of the tank?

 

[KingLucy1997]

Gotcha, still try to understand what you got in your tank. Are you saying it using things in the aquarium to disguise itself and is super fast. Are there more than one of them?

So am I... there seemed to be individuals, especially at the beginning and were tiny, but when I finally killed it in both fresh water and salt water tank it looked like in bother there was a central crab with tentacles buried underground. In the freshwater tank this bristly looking creature was floating around and my freshwater Ramshorn snails snails were having the same symptoms as my cerinth snails and looked it was about to burst out of the Ramshorn. Interesting led, I kept a couple samples one of which maybe only had a couple specks of black thing that grew very quickly into a spikey moss looking thing that resembled the creature in the freshwater tank. Biomass had somehow doubled or tripled in 2 days in that test tube. Threw it all out now.

 

[KingLucy1997]

(Now simultaneously on the other side of the tank, this creature appears to be grabbing the blue legged snail’s astra snail from both sides.)
That seems pretty intense. How can it do it simultaneously on the other side of the tank?

Because I believe there were multiple.

 

[KingLucy1997]

(Now simultaneously on the other side of the tank, this creature appears to be grabbing the blue legged snail’s astra snail from both sides.)
That seems pretty intense. How can it do it simultaneously on the other side of the tank?

(Now simultaneously on the other side of the tank, this creature appears to be grabbing the blue legged snail’s astra snail from both sides.)
That seems pretty intense. How can it do it simultaneously on the other side of the tank?

Because I believe there were multiple and not just one and rapidly reproducing.

 

[KingLucy1997]

looks like a hermit crab without a shell... you sure the crab didn’t somehow get knocked out of its shell? They look weird when they don’t have a shell.

How could that be when the legs were around the shell and I’ve seen that shell knock over before and it is white? If he gotten knocked out of the shell why would hermits legs still be there?

 

[Brady4000]

How could that be when the legs were around the shell and I’ve seen that shell knock over before and it is white? If he gotten knocked out of the shell why would hermits legs still be there?

Maybe you were looking at the hermits molt. Hermit crabs molt and there molts look like dead hermit crabs.

 

[Brady4000]

Take a look at this thread to see what a molt looks like.

hermit crab molt or carcass?

while doing my daily tank inspection i came across two hermit crab molts/carcasses. not sure which. i can not find the empty shells that they used to inhabit so i am hoping they are just molts. i broke open the claw of one and it was hollow inside, but i've never found an intact whole body molt...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[KingLucy1997]

Most definetky not a molt. The picture on that thread still looked like then hermit crab. Look at my picture. That had no resemblance to a molt. Compare below. Looks at the difference.

 

[Brady4000]

Honestly, that’s not a very good picture. Not even sure what I am looking at.

 

[Brady4000]

Do you happen to have a better photo?

 

[TnFishwater98]

I’m confused on everything you are describing....

 

[TnFishwater98]

So when you killed both tanks did you find them?

 

[KingLucy1997]

So when you killed both tanks did you find them?

Do you happen to have a better photo?

Yes when I killed them this crab like thing with lots of tentacles floated up from the bottom of the saltwater tank and in the freshwater tank i found a long moss looking spiky brown creature. I didn’t get a direct sample because it smelled horrible and I didn’t want to reach in there, but I did take some little water residue that had some black detritus in it. In 2 days , the biomass in that test tube with the detritus had grown exponentially and it looked like spike black moss, which is the same material the freshwater thing looked like. I’m sorry I couldn’t get very good pics. I’ll post the unfiltered pic of the infected hermit crab.

 

[KingLucy1997]

Do you happen to have a better photo?

Here’s my best attempt at a better picture.

 

[KingLucy1997]

Honestly, that’s not a very good picture. Not even sure what I am looking at.

Here’s the best pick From the freshwater tank. The snail was struggling like the saltwater one and it looked like something was about to pop out of the back of its shel. The giant black mass I think is the creature. TBH I don’t know what I’m looking at either. The same weird tentacle crab floated up from the substrate in the freshwater tank just like in the freshwater.

 

[CoralB]

I have two Clown Fish, Neon Dotty Back, Flameback Angel, and Four Green Chromis. Also an Emerald Crab, Three Nassarius Snails, Cleaner Shrimp, and Six Bubble-tip Anemones. Noticed all six of my Hermits are gone. Iodine level is fine.

My experience has usually been a red leg hermit crab or a larger blue leg hermit crab when their are no other candidates in the tank . Before I went crabless I’ve lost a lot of blue crabs to the larger red hermit crabs

 

[Brady4000]

My experience has usually been a red leg hermit crab or a larger blue leg hermit crab when their are no other candidates in the tank . Before I went crabless I’ve lost a lot of blue crabs to the larger red hermit crabs

Funny I had the opposite, all my blues were ganging up on my larger reds and taking them out like gangland lol hah. Yea I went crabless too.

 

[Zer0]

Yes when I killed them this crab like thing with lots of tentacles floated up from the bottom of the saltwater tank and in the freshwater tank i found a long moss looking spiky brown creature. I didn’t get a direct sample because it smelled horrible and I didn’t want to reach in there, but I did take some little water residue that had some black detritus in it. In 2 days , the biomass in that test tube with the detritus had grown exponentially and it looked like spike black moss, which is the same material the freshwater thing looked like. I’m sorry I couldn’t get very good pics. I’ll post the unfiltered pic of the infected hermit crab.

Just a guess, but what you’re describing could have been some kind of predatory isopod. They look weird and some of them have very bizarre ambush methods.

I have no idea what that thing is in your freshwater photos are though.

 

[KingLucy1997]

Just a guess, but what you’re describing could have been some kind of predatory isopod. They look weird and some of them have very bizarre ambush methods.

I have no idea what that thing is in your freshwater photos are though.

I don't either. I was thinking it could be an isopod too. I am going to only buy in person for now on and be much more careful with quarantine.

 

[KingLucy1997]

Just a guess, but what you’re describing could have been some kind of predatory isopod. They look weird and some of them have very bizarre ambush methods.

I have no idea what that thing is in your freshwater photos are though.